agree

English

Etymology

From Middle English agreen, from Old French agreer (“to accept or receive kindly”), from a gré (“favorably”), from Latin ad (“to”) + gratum (“pleasing”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to welcome, greet, praise”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ə-grē', IPA^(key): /əˈɡɹiː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈɡɹi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː
• Hyphenation: a‧gree

Verb

agree (third-person singular simple present agrees, present participle agreeing, simple past and past participle agreed)

1. (intransitive) To be in harmony about an opinion, statement, or action; to have a consistent idea between two or more people.

   Synonym: concur

   all parties agree in the expediency of the law.

   I mostly agree with what you said, but I consider your last point to be unfair.

   I couldn't agree more with what you say.

   • 1594, Thomas Lodge, The wounds of civil war: Lively set forth in the true tragedies of Marius and Scilla, page 46:

     You know that in so great a state as this, Two mightie foes can never well agree.

   • 2018, Jon Stone, “Brexit: No significant progress made on any issue in negotiations since March, says EU (The Independent)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:

     Theresa May’s cabinet repeatedly fails to agree with itself on what customs arrangement it wants with the EU after Brexit

   • 1599, “(please specify the chapter or poem)”, in The Passionate Pilgrime. , 2nd edition, London: [Thomas Judson] for W Iaggard, and are to be sold by W Leake, , →OCLC:

     If music and sweet poetry agree.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Mark 14:56:

     For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.

   • 1725–1726, Homer, “(please specify the book or chapter of the Odyssey)”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, and Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     The more you agree together, the less hurt can your enemies do you.

2. (intransitive, followed by "to") To give assent; to accede

   to agree to an offer, or to opinion.

   The workers did not agree to the new terms offered by the trade union.

3. (transitive, UK, Ireland) To yield assent to; to approve.
   • 1666, Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, page 88:

     ... and there, after a good while in discourse, we did agree a bargain of £5,000 with Sir Roger Cuttance for my Lord Sandwich for silk, cinnamon, ...

   • 2005, Paddy McNutt, Law, economics and antitrust: towards a new perspective, page 59:

     The essential idea is that parties should enter the market, choose their contractors, set their own terms and agree a bargain.

   • 2011 April 3, John Burke, The Sunday Business Post:

     Bishops agree sex abuse rules

4. (intransitive) To make a stipulation by way of settling differences or determining a price; to exchange promises; to come to terms or to a common resolve; to promise.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Matt 5:25:

     Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Matt 20:13:

     But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?

5. (intransitive) To resemble; to coincide; to correspond.

   the picture does not agree with the original; the two scales agree exactly.

6. (intransitive, now always with with) To suit or be adapted in its effects; to do well.

   the same food does not agree with every constitution.

7. (intransitive, grammar) To correspond to (another word) in a grammatical category, such as gender, number, case, or person.

   Coordinate term: govern

   In Romanian, all articles, adjectives, and pronouns agree in gender, number and case with the noun they refer to.

8. (intransitive, law) To consent to a contract or to an element of a contract.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
• This is a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs
• The transitive usage could be considered as just an omission of to or upon.
• US and Canadian English do not use the transitive form. Thus "they agreed on a price" or "they agreed to the conditions" are used in North America but not "they agreed a price" or "they agreed the conditions".

Synonyms

• (harmonize in opinion): concur, harmonize; See also Thesaurus:agree
• (yield assent): accede, come around, give way; See also Thesaurus:accede or Thesaurus:assent
• (yield assent to): approve, set
• (come to terms or to a common resolve): bargain, deal, engage; See also Thesaurus:bargain
• (be conformable): coincide, correspond, match, resemble
• (do well): fit, suit
• (grammar):
• (law):

Antonyms

• disagree

Derived terms

Related terms

• gree

Translations

Further reading

• “agree”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “agree”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Eager, aeger, eager, eagre, geare, æger

Galo

Noun

agree

1. rainbow

Middle English

Verb

agree

1. Alternative form of agreen

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English agreen, from Old French agreer.

Verb

agree (third-person singular simple present agrees, present participle agreein, simple past agreed, past participle agreed)

1. to consent to
2. (occasionally) to suffer no injury from (sth)

References

• “agree, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.